Review of It's A Shame About Ray
by Keith Cameron
From NME 11th July 1992
Ray To Go, Dando!
There was a time when it seemed The Lemonheads were destined to be remembered
for what was not theirs. Three years ago we had the biker-booted reading of
Suzanne Vega's 'Luka', and then came 'Different
Drum', the gorgeous Mike Nesmith-penned pop rush that, in all honesty, the
'Heads pulled off far too well for their own good. Like, who needed to hear
what their own songs sounded like?
Even on 1990's sporadically outstanding Atlantic debut 'Lovey', head 'Head Evan Dando was still at it, laying down a cherishable version of Gram Parsons 'Brass Buttons' that unavoidably begged negative comparisons with his own work. But with this, the fifth 'Heads album, Dando is at last emphatically his own man - and the results fall barely short of the miraculous.
One suspects it's largely due to Dando now being on his own. 'Lovey' saw Dando's acoustic instincts sitting a little uneasily with The Lemonheads' traditional amped-up adrenalin ride, and by the time it appeared the rest of the band had gone. 'It's A Shame About Ray' sees contributions from old 'Heads drummer Dave Ryan and Blake Baby Juliana Hatfield, but really this is Dando down to the grain, revealing him to be the master of big-hearted Country-flecked guitar pop. Whatever personal demons lurk behind that sandy face - scratch just below the surface and some of these reassuringly warm ditties reveal sinister aspects - this is an amazingly well-adjusted collection.
'Rockin' Stroll' takes pole position
and could once have been an archetypal Lemonheads breakneck bustler but for
the added textural graft Dando now seems to have knuckled down to. A fairground-compatible
organ breezes in midway, and the album's damn near palpable sense
of sunny-side-up well-being is established. Crucial to this end is Dando's
voice, a smoky husk through which these small-scale snapshots of small-
town lives assume considerably grander dimensions. "He kinda shoulda
sorta woulda loved her if he could've," runs 'Confetti"s recurring
theme, about as close to an aural shrug of the shoulders as is possible. It's
instructive to note that on the title track and the carefree romp of 'Alison's
Starting To Happen', Dando recalls Elvis Costello at his most evocative.
It's a record of little victories,
but 'My Drug Buddy' is the landmark triumph, Dando's own 'Brass Buttons',
the one if GP were still breathing the hickory wind
he'd be asking to sing. Hatfield's angel-on-vacation voice joins Evan for
an organ-based account of scoring whatever candy was on prescription at the
time. "There's
still some of the same stuff we got yesterday," they breathe, locked
in some narcotic space capsule. You'll weep.
OK, so Dando can't resist the cover
mania, but the version of 'Frank Mills' from Hair is a jokey throwaway book-end,
and by that stage the battle's more than won. 'It's A Shame About Ray' suggests
it's high time we
recognise one of the premier American songwriting talents of this, sadly depleted,
generation. (8)